1946 AOA at Crash Hill

First published on August 2, 2013, this is a site that I have not yet been able to return to. I won’t get into the details as to why, but some reasons have been due to health. I do have a few more documents than when this was first published, so I do plan to update the information a little and share a better analysis. I do still hope to return to the site, or if nothing else, visit the memorial at the top of Crash Hill. There are still many people in Newfoundland who remember this incident, and some who were directly involved who have stories to share. I do not have notes or recordings of these stories, but I hope they do get shared publicly as it is another important part of our aviation history.

———
Adapted from Daly and Green 2013.

On 3 October 1946, an American Overseas Airlines (AOA) NC90904, a DC-4, took off from Harmon Airfield in Stephenville, NL at 0833 GMT. Moments later it crashed in to Hare Hill, killing all 8 crew and 31 civilians (Wilkins 1946). This was “the worst disaster in the history of American commercial aviation” (Canadian Press 1946) with a larger death toll than the Sabena disaster which took place in Gander, NL, two week previous. The aircraft had departed from LaGuardia, New York, destined for Berlin, Germany, with stops scheduled in Gander, NL, and Shannon, Ireland (Author Unknown 1946b). The AOA aircraft had been diverted to Stephenville due to thick fog around Gander (Canadian Press 1946). The passengers consisted of 12 women and 6 children en route to be reunited with family stationed in Europe as well as businessmen bound to assist in the rebuilding of Berlin (Wilkins 1946).

Stephenville had strong ties to the United States Air Force, as seen by the monuments found throughout the town. Photo by Shannon K. Green 2012.

The DC-4 was scheduled to leave from runway 30, but a sudden wind change diverted the aircraft to runway 7. The aircraft impacted the side of Hare Hill about 2 and a half minutes after take-off (Wilkins 1946). The subsequent explosion could be seen from the airport (Landis et al. 1947). At first light, the site was checked for survivors by passing aircraft, but none could be found (Author Unknown 1946a). A recovery mission departed at first light that morning to investigate the incident and cover the wreckage. Initially, the plan was to blast above the site to cover the wreckage and human remains, but when the size of the site was established, it was decided to create a mass grave near the wreck site for the human remains (pers. comm. Leo Fitzgerald 2013). Over the next couple of days, bodies and personal effects were recovered, and where possible, identified. The rocks above the site were then dynamited to cover the aircraft, but the site was too large to be completely obscured (Fagan & Fitzpatrick 1946). Personal reports from Nelson Sherren (2011) indicate that the hill may have been blasted again in the 1970s in an attempt to cover more of the aircraft. In 1946, only days after the crash, a memorial cemetery was built at the summit and a large monument which lists the names of the victims was air lifted to the memorial cemetery. Family members were invited to view the site and drop wreathes from an aircraft passing overhead. A Catholic, Protestant and Jewish burial service was held on the helicopter for those who had perished (Time 1946). In 1989, the memorial cemetery was redone when Dixie Knauss, a surviving family member, visited the cemetery and found that all of the crosses had fallen. She attempted to secure acrylic crosses, such as are used in United States military cemeteries, but could not and the site was redone with wooden crosses (Knauss 1989).

More of Stephenville's aviation history as seen by a repair hangar and a Cold War scramble station. Photos by Shannon K. Green 2012

More of Stephenville’s aviation history as seen by a repair hangar and a Cold War scramble station. Photos by Shannon K. Green 2012

Over time the site was lost. The hill was now known as Crash Hill, and it was common knowledge in Stephenville that a plane crash had taken place, but the location and specifics about the crash were less known. In fact, hunters and hikers had been exploring the area trying to find the site, but could not (pers. comm. Don Cormier 2012). It was believed that when the site was dynamited it had been successfully obscured and researchers were unsure that anything would remain.

Alder Pond. Crash Hill is visible in the distance. Photo by author 2012.

In 2012, a small group of researchers, lead by guide Don Cormier, and based on a picture found in Our Lady of Mercy Church on the Port-au-Port in comparison to GoogleEarth images, located the site. Unlike what was expected, most of the wreckage remains. Much is obscured by blasted rock, which also makes the site extremely treacherous, but the aircraft remains. Archaeologists did a preliminary survey of the site, taking GPS readings and photographing pieces, but it was obvious that the site was too large to fully survey in the little time the team had on site. On a second trip that year, videographer Dave Hebbard and Cormier returned to the site and found further wreckage that was not photographed nor mapped on the first trip.

Route taken from Little Long Pond to the crash site.

View of the route from the highest data point.

Our Lady of Mercy church and museum in Port-au-Port. Photo by Shannon K. Green 2013.

Next week, a slightly larger team will return to the site for a two to three day stay in an attempt to properly survey the site, find the extent of the site boundaries, and survey the memorial cemetery at the top of the hill. The site is difficult to access as Crash Hill is a fairly isolated site and the incline of the hill seems to be around 60 or 70 degrees. That coupled with the loose rock leftover from blasting makes it a difficult site to navigate and impossible to bring out much in the way of archaeological equipment. Researchers will be limited to a handheld GPS and measuring tapes and a compass to survey the site.

In an attempt to illustrate the slope of the hill, the top picture is of the author coming down from the crash site, and the bottom is of Shannon Green climbing up the hill toward the crash. It is a difficult hike.

Once this survey is complete, the data will be mapped to give a better idea of site distribution. As well, when the top of the hill is mapped, it will show the extent of the damage that time and the elements has done to the memorial cemetery, which will hopefully end in the site being redone, perhaps with the plastic military crosses that Dixie Knauss wanted in 1989 (Knass 1989).

The museum entrance is around the back of the legion. It’s a great museum, well worth the visit. Photo by author 2013.

*03 October 2013 update: Myself and my team did not make it out to the site this year, we were kept away due to poor weather. I hope to get out next spring or early summer to continue to work. The presentation at the Stephenville Regional Museum of Art and History was well attended, and I had the opportunity to meet many wonderful people from the area, many of whom were happy to share stories with me. I hope to have many more conversations with the people of the area, and do much more research that will be of interest to them.

*04 April 2016 update: Poor health has kept me away from the site. It is a difficult hike and while the research is important, I must put my own well-being first. I have gotten much stronger since my health scare in 2013-2014 have hope to soon be able to push myself into more strenuous hikes.

References Cited

Author Unknown
1946a Fears Expressed All of 39 Occupants Perish in Crash; Plane Bursts Into Flames. Evening Telegram, 03 October 1946.

Author Unknown
1946b Fire on the Hill. Time Magazine, 14 October 1946.

Canadian Press
1946 Twelve Women and Six Children Are Among the Victims. Daily News, 04 October 1946.

Daly, Lisa M. and Shannon K. Green
2013 Crash Hill: A Survey of the 1946 AOA Crash in Stephenville, NL. On file at the Provincial Archaeology Office, Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Fagan, J. and G. Fitzpatrick
1946 Report on Wreck of American Overseas Airlines Airliner on Mountain Eight Miles North East of Stephenville. Report to the Chief Newfoundland Ranger, GN 13/1/B Box 355 File 3.

Knauss, Dixie L.
1989 Personal communication from D. Knauss to Francis Walsh, 18 April 1989. On file PANL GN 4/5 AG 57/7 Box 2 Aviation.

Landiss, J.M, Oswald Ryan, Josh Lee and Clarence M. Young
1947 Civil Aeronautics Board Accident Investigation Report American Overseas Airlines, Inc. Stephenville, Newfoundland, October 3, 1946. On file PANL GN 4/5 AG 57/7 Box 2 Aviation.

Wilkins, F.S.
1946 Accident to American Overseas Airways Aircraft NC 90904 at Stephenville 3rd October 1946. Royal Canadian Air Force Accident Investigation Report Newfoundland Government No. 2. On file PANL GN 51/21.

This was first published on 18 March 2014. It does make reference to a previous posts on my old blog (I’m reposting these in backwards) such as Les Filotas’ Improbable Cause and the 1946 Stephenville AOA disaster. I will post those ones as well, even if Filotas’ work is a controversial publication (I have a rule with one colleague that we not discuss that crash until he visits the crash site. Otherwise we will agree to disagree on many points), and will update the links as the blogs are reposted. As I said, this is a great reference book, a great starting point for research, but some information within the book does need verification.

I would also like to apologize for a number of book reviews in a row, but I am working on more incident reports and thesis edits of crash sites to be published. At the same time, I am always trying to read more and do more research, which means book reviews. I am also working on a couple of posts looking at methods to be used in aviation archaeology; methods which anyone with just a few inexpensive pieces of equipment can do.

Disaster in the Air by Colonel Edgar A. Haine (published in 2000 by Cornwall Books, New York) was recommended to me by a descendant of the navigator who perished in the 1946 Stephenville air disaster. It also came with the warning that some facts and figures should be checked, as her grandfather’s name was misspelled.

According to the dust jacket “This book is mainly concerned with the serious subject of airplane safety” and details “eighty-nine of the world’s most serious (in terms of human lives lost) airplane disasters starting in 1927”. As the focus of this blog is Newfoundland aviation, I will only look at the disasters listed for this area, but the text does make for a good reference point if researching any air disaster, particularly if an American aircraft is involved. Many well-know crashes are profiled, such as PAN AM Flight 103 which crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland and TWA Flight 800 east of New York, but others, such as the 1946 Sabena crash in Gander, Newfoundland and the 1998 Swissair Flight 111 disaster off the coast of Nova Scotia are not covered, both with heavy casualty rates for the time. An updated edition would be nice to include Air France Flight 4590, the aircraft involved in 9/11 and others to maintain its status as a good reference book. The introduction is well written and explains why aircraft disasters and incidents need to be investigated, and the steps of an investigation and how they have changed with the types of aircraft, technology and with the advent of devices like the black box. The introduction then goes through the evolution of safety boards and regulations, with an American focus, and how those changes were reflected by, or caused by, the number of disasters in different time periods. Again, such an overview is a great starting point for any research, and explains it in a clear manner that anyone can read.

NC-4 off the Azores, 1919. From wikipedia.org

Prior to delving into the disasters, Haine give a brief overview of early aviation history, again, with a focus on American aviation history. He starts with the Wright Brothers, into the Daily Mail prize, the successful flight of the Curtiss seaplanes from Newfoundland to Lisbon in 1919 (with a stop in the Azores as pictures above), to Alcock and Brown’s non-stop flight from Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland through many other aviation firsts up to the end of the 1920s. Again, it is a wonderful overview of early aviation, and a good starting point for any research. Haine actually returns at the end of the books (Appendix 5: Biographical Information and Airplane Data) to discuss the specification of some of these early aircraft as well as those featured in the main part of the book (the disasters). Strangely, the major aviation accidents from 1927-1998 are listed in a table in chronological order, but the individual accident narratives are actually in reverse order, starting with 1998. This is a little odd as the reason for including many of the incidents are that they are the worst disaster of that time, but the impact of this is lost when looking at the incidents in reverse order. As well, listing them in chronological order would have better showed the evolution of the aircraft and safety standards, something touched on in the introduction.

Site of the Arrow Air Crash in Gander, Newfoundland, overlooking Gander Lake. Photo by author, 2008.

Only two Newfoundland incidents are listed in this text, “12 December [1985]. Arrow Air Crash, Gander Newfoundland, 256 deaths” and “3 October [1946]. DC-4 Crashes in Newfoundland, Killing 30 Persons.” The Arrow Air Crash is covered in under a page, looking at the route, the crash and the investigation. According to Haine, sabotage was quickly ruled out and the cause, though undetermined, may have been due to the aircraft being overweight and/or no de-icing although there was freezing rain falling prior to takeoff. It is a simplistic look at the crash, but, as this book is an overview, it is a good place to start. For something more detailed, try Improbable Cause by Les Filotas.

Wreckage from the 1946 Stephenville crash. Photo by author, 2013.

The 1946 Stephenville DC-4 Crash is much more detailed. Haine discuses the planned route for the aircraft, how it was diverted to Stephenville due to Gander being “socked” in and early theories regarding the crash. Over four pages, the author discusses the rescue/recovery parties that went to the site, the investigators who visited the crash the day after the crash and the efforts made to comply with family wishes for funeral arrangements and the final outcome of the site. Back in the introduction of the book, it is stated that “in one case, in Newfoundland in 1946, the wreckage and intact bodies were simply covered over by an avalanche of rocks, generated by a powerful explosion, in order to obliterate all traces of the calamity.” This indicates that it is the only time this has been done. While other research has shown that the remains were in fact collected, put in a mass grave, then the site covered by blasted rocks on 5 October 1946. Haine also states that “an acre plot of ground, surrounding the jutting cliff, scene of the crash within sight of Harmon Field, was set aside as an official cemetery”. It is assumed that this includes the memorial cemetery above the crash site.

Images of the memorial cemetery from heritage.nf.ca. Note, since this image was taken, many of the wooden crosses have fallen.

The article ends with a discussion of the investigation and the findings by the Board of Inquiry. The Civil Aeronautics Board determined the probable cause of the investigation as “the action of the pilot in maintaining the direction of takeoff toward higher terrain over which adequate clearance could not be gained”. The author indicates that this disaster, as one of the largest at the time with high civilian casualties, would have to prepare the public for increasingly larger disasters due to the “rapidly increasing size of air transports”. Overall, the book is an excellent reference tool, and good as a starting point for the investigation of any incident. The fall-backs are that it is not as comprehensive as it would lead a reader to believe in the introduction, and facts are not cited nearly enough. While many end-notes can be used to find more sources, many accidents are not references at all (i.e. the Arrow Air crash in Gander). If you have an interest in aviation history, this is worth having in your collection, just be sure to verify its information.

Plane Crash Girl.ca

Exploring Newfoundland and Labrador's Aviation History

“The worst disaster in the history of commercial American aviation”

Review: Disaster in the Air by Colonel Edgar A. Haine

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